Art of District 9 Illustrates Alien Freak Show

District 9 scored last summer as a breakthrough sci-fi film that fused the mundane grit of a politically dysfunctional society with classic alien elements. Operating simultaneously as apartheid metaphor, personal drama and shoot-'em-up spectacle, the movie coalesced through an intensely creative collaborative process that was rife with trial and error.

As documented in upcoming book The Art of District 9, Weta Workshop practiced the design equivalent of Method acting. Beyond crafting cool-looking effects, artisans working under the direction of Peter Jackson's go-to effects expert — The Lord of the Rings Oscar-winner Richard Taylor — embedded behavior and motivation into their freakish models of aliens, weapons and spaceships.

Here's an exclusive look, taken from The Art of District 9, at concept art, maquettes and prototypes developed to flesh out director Neill Blomkamp's distinctive vision for his trend-setting movie.

Above:

The Art of District 9

Written by Weta Workshop designer Daniel Falconer, the 160-page, full-color book The Art of District 9 (priced at $45 in hardcover) will be released by HarperCollins on a staggered schedule (New Zealand in October, Australia in November and the United States and Britain in December).

Tentacles Everywhere

From the outset, District 9 writer-director Neill Blomkamp established alien guidelines for the film, initially known only as "Project X." In The Art of District 9, author Daniel Falconer writes: "The creatures should have tentacled faces and hands, designed with practical creature-suit-wearing human performers in mind, distorting the recognizable human form wherever possible."

Human Puppeteers

Form followed function for District 9 designer Daniel Falconer. To deflect attention from the human puppeteers that would portray aliens, he said he "looked at hunching the shoulders and dropping the head. I also thought it would be interesting to give the aliens industrial-looking robotic stilts that would disguise the actor's legs."

Prawn Sunglasses

District 9 designer Christian Pearce decided the aliens, disparagingly called "prawns," might have sensitive skin or eyes. "They'd cover themselves with garbage bags, clothing, signs, hats, whatever they could find," Pearce says in The Art of District 9. "I also thought it would be funny if all try to wear sunglasses but of course they don't fit, so they break them and maybe tape them on."

Ghetto Extraterrestrials

"In the harsh slums we were referencing for the aliens' Earth environment, we saw that ... random pieces of clothing took on special meanings," District 9 designer Christian Pearce says.

Alien Cockfight

District 9 depicts cockfights that pit alien critters against each other. The creatures featured crustacean anatomy to demonstrate shared DNA with the alpha Prawns. Early iterations incorporated blades into the creatures' armature, but designer Christian Pearce and lead creature designer David Meng later replaced this concept in favor of a "nasty tail barb," according to Pearce.

Cockfight Maquette

Weta sculptor Don Brooker fabricated this District 9 maquette to model the personality of an alien cockfight combatant.

From Tools to Guns

Director Neil Blomkamp sketched out weaponry concept art for District 9 while sitting in a Los Angeles hotel room. He had originally conceived the items as "tools," he says, "but eventually the geekiness took over."

The Gas Projector

A design aesthetic emerged about a quarter way into production of District 9, as sharp angles and an orange/black/white color scheme took hold. Describing the Gas Projector weapon above, designer Greg Broadmore says: "It would have worked like a flamethrower except instead of firing an ignited jet of liquid or gel, it dispensed this very dense gas that had a fierce corrosive effect."

Alien Assault Rifle

Prop maker Callum Lingard crafted these District 9 assault rifles, which featured an actual recoil effect.

Skyscraper Spaceship

Weta Workshop boss Richard Taylor pitched the notion of a "vertical" ship as the home base for District 9 aliens. Director Neill Blomkamp liked the "floating skyscraper" idea and generated the illustrations above.

Saucer in the Sky

In the end, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp opted for a more traditional take on the Prawns' mothership. "Ultimately I thought there needed to be a basic sci-fi familiarity," he says in The Art of District 9. "The setting of South Africa was already weird enough, so I went back to the pure saucer shape that has defined alien arrivals since the 1930s."

Insectoid Drop Ship

When District 9 designer Greg Broadmore took another shot at the prawns' ship, he included a "slave hold" and made sure the squared-off sides matched the aliens' weaponry and exosuits.

Signs of the Times

"I wanted the signage to have a certain wonkiness ... like something normal people without graphic sophistication would produce," says District 9 graphic designer Leri Greer.

Historically Grounded Rhetoric

To underscore the apartheid motif in his District 9 signage, designer Leri Greer researched the rhetoric used decades ago by the South African government. "Gauteng is the province in which Johannesburg sits," he says. "I lifted that (language) and put it straight into the anti-alien material. I literally looked up original apartheid signs from that era and deconstructed them, changing the designs to fit our alien situation."